My brother worked for a large northeastern state for 10+ years.He told stories of croneyism and laziness that would make the hair on your toes curl.Everyone (civil service,not political appointees) was either a brother-in-law of a politician or a campaign contributor.His two favorite jokes were "why don't state workers look out the window in the morning? Because then they'll have nothing to do in the afternoon"...and..."what does a state worker say when going home on Wednesday afternoon? Have a nice weekend".

It's all a huge scam...a mutually parasitic arrangement between Rat politicians and the fat a$$ed "workers".

These types of policies are not present, widely, in the private sector - for a reason. PTO, when used in place of scheduled work time does not cost money beyond the employee’s salary - it merely exchanges accounting classifications for the business. At the end of the year, the business has not paid out more than the employee’s salary, even though the employee may have used 3 sick days and 5 to 10 days of vacation.

To allow PTO to be accrues and cashed out costs a huge amount of money, that otherwise was not allocated for compensation. To view sick days and vacation time as separate from salary is wrong. It is time for the use it or lose it, on an annual basis, policies that we use in the private sector.

3 posted on 01/20/2013 6:08:49 AM PST by RobertClark
(It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we'r)

The natural common-sense limit for sick day retention is just below the number of days that disability kicks in.

Anyways, this 120 day thing is pure union cronyism, and would never see the light in the private sector. The purpose is to cover someone’s cold, the flu, or some day surgery. A cap of two weeks tops seems reasonable, with an expectation to lose it if healthy. The union mentality of course is to see it and use it EXACTLY like vacation time.

4 posted on 01/20/2013 6:10:47 AM PST by C210N
(When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)

I disagree with capping sick days, because the alternative, of employees periodically taking “sick day holidays”, just to use up their sick days, is just as expensive, and undermines their honesty.

And of course, the idea that someone might be sick or have an accident lasting more than a week at a time over the course of years, and be at threat for losing their job, should be considered.

Finally, workers sign contracts in which their employer voluntarily offers sick days as a perquisite to their job. To strip them of what they earned, voluntarily, by not being sick, is like saying, “Well, we promised you a wage, or salary, but it is now costing us too much, so we want say, $2,000 back. We’re retroactively capping your pay.”

What comes to mind is that sick days are actually a big incentive for a school district in contract negotiations, so if they put a sick day cap in the contract, there is a good chance that teachers will “shop” what district they want to work in, and go for the better offer. (Which happens right now).

I have no love of unions, but this is a silly non-issue. It is clearly stated that the employees earn 1 day of sick leave for each month worked. That’s 12 days added to their sick leave bank each year, assuming they don’t use any of it throughout the year. The only way they could take off 120 days would be if they banked their entire annual sick leave accrual for 10 full years!

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the other articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)

The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.

18 posted on 01/20/2013 11:31:12 AM PST by metmom
(For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the other articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)

The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.

19 posted on 01/20/2013 11:32:09 AM PST by metmom
(For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)

It's what "collective bargaining" looks like when politicians "negotiate" with other people's money.

For decades the politicians have met in smoke-filled back rooms with union pinky rings and, with a wink and a nod, offered to give the rank-and-file lavish pension plans and lifetime retirement bennies IN LIEU OF big pay raises that would have to be paid for out of CURRENT budgets, and that might require tax hikes. But, see, lavish pension plans and lifetime retirement bennies, well... they get paid for out of FUTURE budgets - - decades in the future.

That is, the politicians buy their votes today with the taxpayer money of tomorrow. They just kick the can down the road and let future politicians and future taxpayers deal with the inevitable financial calamity that comes to bear in 20 or 30 years. "That'll be their problem, (shrug)", has been the unspoken understanding of the slimy politicians and their pinky ring union collaborators. Meanwhile, current taxpayers can shrug because, hey... their taxes didn't go up this year.

This is this kind of corrupt "negotiating" that politicians can get away with because, unlike in the private sector, they get to "negotiate" with other people's money. There is no "bottom line" or "profit and loss" statement, and no annual report to stockholders to worry about. No, when politicians "negotiate" with government employee unions, it's like the foxes negotiating with the coyotes over how to divide up the chickens in the hen house.

Anyway, in many states and cities, 20 or 30 years have come and gone. Now what?

Thank God for Scott Walker and a few other governors who have had the guts to put their foot on the can and kick it right back where it came from.

It’s important to our political/regulator class to pave the way for hiring more government teachers. The most popular politicians of both political parties run over each other to keep it going. Good. In the not-so-long run, they’re helping to starve the B. Keep spending. Spend it all, quickly.

21 posted on 01/20/2013 3:31:50 PM PST by familyop
(We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)